This account is pending registration confirmation. Please click on the link within the confirmation email previously sent you to complete registration.Need a new registration confirmation email? Click here

5 Things That Happened In Small Business This Week: April 19

NEW YORK (
TheStreet) -- It's hard to think of anything else this week between the
Boston Marathon bombings and the explosion of the fertilizer plant in Texas, but here's what happened in small business this week.

1. First-quarter venture capital funding drops. U.S. companies raised $6 billion from 752 venture capital deals in the first quarter of 2013, down 11% from the previous quarter. The number of deals also represents a 6% decrease in the same time period, according to Dow Jones Venture Source's quarterly report. The report includes data on the number of VC deals, funds raised, mergers and acquisitions and initial public offerings in the technology sector.

The largest funding deals in the Internet and IT sector last quarter were
Pinterest's $200 million raise and
Living Social's $110 million raise,
TechCrunch reports.

But it was the health care sector that saw the largest investment allocation by sector with 162 deals raising $1.9 billion -- 30% of the total venture capital investment, the report found.

Acquisition activity also declined last quarter. Total M&A dropped 44% to $4.3 billion compared to the fourth quarter of 2012. IPOs also fell by more than half. In the first three months of the year, nine venture-backed companies were able to raise $643 million through public offerings, down 55% from the year earlier, the report said.

2. Speaking of IPOs . . . Fairway went to the public markets. Shares of the growing supermarket chain
Fairway (FWM - Get Report) surged 38% above its offering price on Wednesday, it's first day of trading as a public company.

According to
The Deal,
TheStreet's sister publication, the stock added another 8.5% to value its market cap at more than $766 million on Thursday. Shares were rising 0.5% on Friday to $18.93.

Seen as a competitor to
Whole Foods(WFM - Get Report), Fairway is primarily using the proceeds for its expansion strategy, which includes building new stores.

The supermarket retailer has 12 locations in the New York metropolitan area, with additional stores planned for Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood and for Nanuet, N.Y., both to open in 2013, the article said.

3. Sam Adams buys another round for small food and beer businesses.Boston Beer Co.(SAM - Get Report), the maker of Samuel Adams beer, is expanding its five-year-old initiative to help small businesses in the food and beverage industry with funding, coaching and other resources available from the craft brewery.